Hello everyone and welcome back to a new day on DragoArt.com. I have been getting into sketching faces, and I sketched out a very popular face that was painted by the very talented Leonardo da Vinci. Her name is thought to be Lisa Gherardini and she was twenty four years old when she posed for the picture. Of course everything I just stated about this young woman is only a theory. The other theory is that the woman in the painting is in fact Leonardo himself in female form. Now a belief like that would have to be second guessed because why on earth would such a man paint himself as a woman. The lesson that I will be teaching you today is going to be on “how to draw Mona Lisa” step by step. The only real fact about the painting is that it was definitely painted by Leonardo da Vinci, but the woman remains a mystery. Right now as we speak the priceless painting resides in a room that was specially made just for the Mona Lisa. There is no other paintings in the room with her and it is said that the room cost over seven million dollars to build. Why so much money you ask? Well, unfortunately I am no painting expert, but I think it is because the painting was once stolen back in 1911 by a museum employee. The employee stole the painting when the skies still shined from the sun. The Mona Lisa was found and retrieved two years later and placed back in the Louvre Museum in Paris France. Did you know that a man by the name of Ugo Ungaza threw a rock at the mysterious painting leaving a mark on the left elbow of the painting? It’s true, back in 1956 the Mona Lisa suffered an imperfection in the form of a puncture hole. No one really knows the exact date that the painting was made, but experts speculate that da Vinci painted the young woman between the years of 1503 and 1506. The whole canvas in size measures in at thirty by twenty one inches. The paint used was oil based and the canvas was a wooden panel. But, how did this painting become the property of France? Well back in 1517, King Francis I bought the painting from da Vinci himself. The famous piece of art is called “La Joconde” by the French people and “La Giaconda” by the Italians. The last time the painting left the museum was in 1974 I think, when it took a trip to Japan. An interesting fact about the Mona Lisa and it’s display case is that, it is protected by a bulletproof box that is one hundred fifty seven by ninety eight inches in size. The box was a gift from Japan and since then there it has stayed. The temperature in the box is kept at a constant sixty eight degrees, and the humidity levels are at a perfect fifty five percent. The painting only comes out of its box once a year to get a routine checkup. Almost like a doctors visit. Did you know that the museum is unable to insure the Mona Lisa? Yup, that’s also true. Because the painting is considered priceless it cannot be insured. So if someone steals the painting or it gets destroyed in any way, there is no way to collect any kind of royalties from the damage or the theft. It is strange that such a remarkable painting is only viewed and admired because of the mystery behind the smile. You see, people that view the Mona Lisa will see her smiling, but then the smile will fade and turn into a straight face. But then the smile comes back again. This was broken down and studied by a neuroscientists because the smile was just so baffling. It was explained that the visual system of a human is always adjusting when something is unclear and or blurry. The Italians believe that Mona Lisa’s smile is “sfumato” which basically means that it is up to the imagination. Anyways this sketch took me a long while to sketch out and draw. When you sketch the painting be sure to use a light sketching technique and also be sure to take your time. I hope you will have fun with this lesson on “how to draw Mona Lisa” step by step.

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